It’s been a really fast three weeks.
The school has taken great care of us. We’ve been wined and dined and toured around town. They set us up with Lilian Lim, realtor extraordinaire who, despite the competitive real estate market here in Singapore, found great condos to show us. We decided on one that’s just a fifteen minute walk to work. It’s across the street from HDB flats so we have a grocery store, ATM, and hawker stalls nearby. The MRT station is just fifteen minutes away as well. And it’s only a ten minute taxi ride from the quarantine station where my poor cats are waiting for August 20 when I can spring them from kitty jail.
We spent last week taking part in new teacher orientation. In my division, that meant lots of classroom time for teachers. I still need to get my brain around the teaching side of my job. I find it more than a bit unsettling that all the returning staff that I’ve met have made comments to the effect of, “Oh! You are the new tech coordinator? You’re going to be really busy.” — All right; I’m not too unsettled. I knew I was stepping into a big job and I’m following someone who did it extremely well. I hope I can uphold his high standards.
One of the delights of this job is all the resources. In my previous tech position, I only dreamed of being able to offer my staff resources such as BrainPop and United Streaming. This school has all that and much more. They even use Conversar to stream videos directly into the classroom. Teachers are able to preview the videos and bookmark them so that they can jump directly to the desired sections. They all received data projectors and six teachers are piloting Smartboards. I love seeing technology used to support teachers so well.
I have a ton to learn but my department has been wonderfully supportive, and good fun. We feel a bit amazed that we’ve landed in such a good school. Now, to get some sleep so I’ll be awake for a day full of meetings…
Just the person I’ve been thinking about over the last few days. As I returned from a month of holidays I wondered when the world would hear for you again. I’m glad to see you are settling in and are getting your feet into the big shoes of your new job.
It sounds like Singapore really is the dream world I’ve heard so much about here at M’KIS. I’m excited to hear about all the great things you’re going to be able to do with so many resources! I’m doing my best to keep your blogging project alive with the grade 6 this year. Thanks for laying such excellent groundwork (we’re even using the same permission slip!).